Watching the main battle scene in Game of Thrones last night (don't worry, no spoilers) all I could think about is how horrible it would've been to actually be involved in a fight like that. The blood curdling sounds of people being run through with swords, spears and arrows, others getting limbs chopped off then being left for dead. Many of these people are your friends and you're watching them die, not to mention the fact that you might be next. You also might get taken prisoner and best case scenario you are a slave for the rest of your life, worst case you are executed and usually tortured first for information and if you're lucky its a quick death of beheading or hanging.

I couldn't help but think that the scene I was watching had to be very similar to the Israelites conquests in the OT. I realize the archeological evidence for these events is scant but lets assume these battles happened. They didn't have guns or missiles, they had to go into cities and kill everyone (men, women, children and livestock!) with swords and other crude weapons. How often did they cut someones stomach open then leave them to bleed out for hours or days? Did Yahweh swoop in and put them out of their misery?

Many pro-life conservative christians want to show videos of aborted fetuses to Women considering abortion so they can visualize what will actually happen. But how many christians actually think in the same terms towards the violence sanctioned by Yahweh in the OT? You hear them say very quickly how it was a rough time in the world and people were brutal to one another, then they sigh a bit and move on to the next topic. I wonder if they could go back in time and watch an Israelite soldier stab a 5 year old with a sword if they'd defend their god so much and say its all part of his divine plan?

Quote:I couldn't help but think that the scene I was watching had to be very similar to the Israelites conquests in the OT.

Except there were no Israelite conquests. Israel and Judah in fact usually got the shit kicked out of them by anyone who wanted to do so.

Reality is a bitch, you know.

Exactly, they were the bitchez of the Assyrians, Egyptians or Babylon. Its quite a funny coincidence, that -just like with jeebus- there was never written much, if anything, about those kingdoms given how important they were according to biblical claims. Looks like they were so insignificant that noone who conquered them bothered to brag about it. Poor Israelites.

Herodotus traveled the western portions of the Persian Empire and does not so much as mention any "jews" or "judah." This meshes quite nicely with Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein's assertion that when the "jews" returned from Babylon they were a mere handful of about 400 people who were sent to take charge of this most piss-poor of Persia's western "empire."